Haulin stuff and chillin' stuff

The wagons and coolers

Most garages have lots of stuff left over from the kids. Most kids had wagons. After moving them around I decided to clean them up and put them to work. And they never seem to have enough room. So a trailer was designed.

The Wagons

This pair started out as two vanilla wagons. The main wagon was dissassembled, cleaned, the aged tub unit needed some bodywork then was scuffed and repainted. I fabricated some simple side rails from some shop plastic sheet to spiffy it up. And then a quick reassembly with new hardware was done. The trailer was also dissassembled and the bed was bodyworked, scuffed and repainted. The front steering truck was eliminated and the rear truck was moved forward a bit. Then a simple tongue was fabricated from some scrap square stock. A simple Z shaped hitch plate was fabbed from flat stock and mounted on the main wagon. A drop in hitch pin couples them together.

Did you ever wonder why the front pull handle has a kink in it? I always thought it was damaged! Well, it's not! When reassembling the wagon I was informed by a knowledgable source that the kinked section was intentional and needed to be pointed up! Why? Because it allows the handle to be swung under the wagon and clears the front axle so it could be stored in less space! Really! In addition many of the rear axles are positioned in such a way that you could store the wagon ON END! With the handle neatly tucked underneath. Whooda Thunk It?!

The Coolers

My Mustang Cooler

This derelict vintage top bail cooler was redone as an accessory to go with my Mustangs. After disassembling the unit I first had to deal with the tub and the vintage rock wool insulation. Over the years the tub was rough but after a clean up it only needed some rust treatment and sealer to protect it. The rock wool was removed and replaced with some flat styrofoam sheeting. Then we got to stripping and repainting the top and body.

When it came to the repaint I decided to finish it in a stylish two-tone.The stripe only goes around 3 sides. To make it unique I decided to put to use some leftover Mustang emblems to terminate the stripe. And it also got a center chrome accent stripe for added attraction.

My Vintage Cronco Cooler

This is a vintage cooler that I picked up while rummaging through a local flea market vendor. This one I found buried under a pile of women's shoes. After digging it out and doing the manditory haggling over the price I ended up getting it for cheap! This Cronco cooler had a nice blue vinyl top and had a cool sailfish sticker on it. I found out this was a very common cooler for the 40/50/60's with fishermen.

This particular vintage cooler was built to be sat on. So over its' working life it had aquired some structural issues. Namely a pushed in bottom and some corner dunches. After disassembly a bit of judicious body work had the shell all nice and square again. Because the body was quilted aluminum it took a good cleaning nicely. I did sacrifice the sailfish emblem in the process. While the inner tub was removed the antique insulation was ditched and replaced with up-to-date styrofoam sheet. And for good measure I laminated a section of thin plywood to the inside floor of the cooler to reinforce it. I have not redone the blue vinyl top yet. maybe later.

Once refurbished and reassembled I replaced the removed sailfish decal with a custom fabricated yellow caution sign with a stainless skull and crossbones on it. So it is good to go for my rat rod project!